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Butler shook his head solemnly.
"It's a great blow to me, daughter. It's a great blow to me," he said. "I'm willing to take your word
if ye say so; but I can't help thinkin' what a sad thing it would be if ye were lyin' to me. I haven't
had the house watched. I only got this this mornin'. And what's written here may not be so. I
hope it isn't. But we'll not say any more about that now. If there is anythin' in it, and ye haven't
gone too far yet to save yourself, I want ye to think of your mother and your sister and your
brothers, and be a good girl. Think of the church ye was raised in, and the name we've got to
stand up for in the world. Why, if ye were doin' anything wrong, and the people of Philadelphy
got a hold of it, the city, big as it is, wouldn't be big enough to hold us. Your brothers have got a
reputation to make, their work to do here. You and your sister want to get married sometime.
How could ye expect to look the world in the face and do anythin' at all if ye are doin' what this
letter says ye are, and it was told about ye?"
The old man's voice was thick with a strange, sad, alien emotion. He did not want to believe that
his daughter was guilty, even though he knew she was. He did not want to face what he
considered in his vigorous, religious way to be his duty, that of reproaching her sternly. There
were some fathers who would have turned her out, he fancied. There were others who might
possibly kill Cowperwood after a subtle investigation. That course was not for him. If vengeance
he was to have, it must be through politics and finance-- he must drive him out. But as for doing
anything desperate in connection with Aileen, he could not think of it.
"Oh, father," returned Aileen, with considerable histrionic ability in her assumption of
pettishness, "how can you talk like this when you know I'm not guilty? When I tell you so?"
The old Irishman saw through her make-believe with profound sadness--the feeling that one of
his dearest hopes had been shattered. He had expected so much of her socially and
matrimonially. Why, any one of a dozen remarkable young men might have married her, and
she would have had lovely children to comfort him in his old age.
"Well, we'll not talk any more about it now, daughter," he said, wearily. "Ye've been so much to
me during all these years that I can scarcely belave anythin' wrong of ye. I don't want to, God
knows. Ye're a grown woman, though, now; and if ye are doin' anythin' wrong I don't suppose I
could do so much to stop ye. I might turn ye out, of course, as many a father would; but I
wouldn't like to do anythin' like that. But if ye are doin' anythin' wrong"-- and he put up his hand
to stop a proposed protest on the part of Aileen--"remember, I'm certain to find it out in the long
run, and Philadelphy won't be big enough to hold me and the man that's done this thing to me.
I'll get him," he said, getting up dramatically. "I'll get him, and when I do--" He turned a livid face
to the wall, and Aileen saw clearly that Cowperwood, in addition to any other troubles which
might beset him, had her father to deal with. Was this why Frank had looked so sternly at her
the night before?
"Why, your mother would die of a broken heart if she thought there was anybody could say the
least word against ye," pursued Butler, in a shaken voice. "This man has a family--a wife and
children, Ye oughtn't to want to do anythin' to hurt them. They'll have trouble enough, if I'm not
mistaken--facin' what's comin' to them in the future," and Butler's jaw hardened just a little.
"Ye're a beautiful girl. Ye're young. Ye have money. There's dozens of young men'd be proud to
make ye their wife. Whatever ye may be thinkin' or doin', don't throw away your life. Don't
destroy your immortal soul. Don't break my heart entirely."
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